Page:United States Reports, Volume 2.djvu/114

 ro} Cues ruled and adjudged in the I’]90• vwrsé RESPUBLICL  MITLACI• PPEAL from the fettlement of the defenda¤t’s accounts by the Comptroller General. 'I`he defendant had been appointed a commiilioner by the Executive Council, to explore the navigable waters of the llate ; and on account of his abfence _ upon that fervice, Ln; is had moved, at the preceding term, and now mcved again, to pollpone the trial. '1`he Attorney Gene- ral obferved, that the appellant was not in durefs, and might, if he ment impoflible, either of the principal or interefl, makes it like the common cafe of a tender and refulhl of money, alter which interest {tors. both ly )cur laus and ours VVe fee tru, lr· ni the letter of Mr. Adams ]une 16, I785, that the Britiéh Sec··etary for loreign lllixlrs was feniible, that a Britiih llatute having rendered criminal all intereourfe between the debtor ar-tl creditor, had placed the article of iuterell on a diH`erent footing from the principal. And the letter of our Plenipotentiaries to Mr. Hartley. the liritifh Plenipotentiary for forming the definitive treaty., lhews that the omillien to cxprefs interes in the treaty was not merely an overlight el the parti—s`; that its allowance was coniidered by our plenipotentraries as at thing not to be inferred in the treaty ; was d—clared againll by Con- grefs, and that declaration communicated to Mr. Hartley. After fuch an expl.inat·on, the omillion is h proof of aequiefcence, and an intention not to claim it. It appears then. that_th: debt and interest on that debt, are {`cparate thingsin évery country, andnnder feparate ·rules, 'I hat in every count·y a ded: is recoverable, while in moll coun- tries, intereflis re‘ul`ed infill cales; in others, given or refufed, dimi- nilhed,_or augmented, at the difcretion of the Judge; no where given in all cafes indifcriminately, and conlequently nowhere foincorporat- ed with the debt, as to pals with that ex vi termini, or otherwife to be conlirlered as a determinate and veiled thing. While the taking interest on money has thus been coniidered in Tome countries as morally wrong in all cafes, in others made legally right but in particular cafes, the taking profits from lands or rents in lieu of profits, has been allowed every where, and at all times, both in morality and law. Hence it is laid down as a general rule V`olf, SL zzg* * Si qnis fundum alienum poliidet, domini ell quan- tum valet ufus fundi, et poll`efl`oris quantum valet ejus tultura et cura.' lint even in the cafe of lands, rellored by a treaty, the ur- rcurs of profits or rents ure never rellored, unlefs they beparticu- larly ’ ‘ [f' any one is in possession qf anotberlr land, so mueb belonge ro the owner as the use gf the land is uwrtb, and so mueb to tb: porsessar as bis labor and care are u»¤rtb.'

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